Prosecutor Faces Personal Trial Hells Angels Trial Costs Wife Her Job, Son His Day Care And Family Its Peace
The prosecutor handling a Hells Angels murder trial says the case cost his wife a job and his son a spot in day care.
Fearing retaliation from motorcycle gang members, Dave Hearrean and his family don’t go home at night or drive their own cars. They move from one hotel to another. Armed officers escort them everywhere, even for coffee breaks. Hearrean wears a bulletproof vest.
“Because of me, my entire family is at risk,” Hearrean said Thursday. “We don’t have a life anymore. I’m just furious that gang members can get away with intimidating everyone like this.”
The harassment started last month and escalated the night before Timothy Myers’ murder trial began May 1.
Myers, 42, is charged with fatally shooting a rival motorcycle gang member and wounding another outside a Hillyard tavern last December. A Spokane County Superior Court jury, unable to reach a verdict Thursday, resumes its deliberations this morning.
Hearrean said two bikers - one wearing Hells Angels insignia - followed his wife’s car to a supermarket in north Spokane on April 30.
After staring at her in the store, the men left but roared alongside her car a short time later on U.S. Highway 2. The motorcycle club’s president denied any members were involved in the intimidation.
The next day, a bomb threat was phoned into LDDS-World Com, the downtown telecommunications company where Hearrean’s wife works. The 15th floor of the U.S. Bank Building on Riverside was evacuated. No bomb was found.
Hearrean’s wife, who did not want her name divulged, showed up for work the next day with two armed deputies. Her supervisor, Carla Phelps, told her she had to leave.
“It’s absolutely not fair at all,” Dave Hearrean said. “Because I’m doing my job, she’s losing one.”
Phelps refused to comment Thursday, except to say Hearrean’s wife was hired five months ago through Express Personnel Services, a job-placement agency.
The manager of that company, Ira Amstadter, said Hearrean’s wife has not been fired but no longer will be allowed to work in the U.S. Bank Building. Instead, she’ll be given a new job elsewhere when the trial is over.
“People got very, very nervous after the bomb scare and seeing her with bodyguards and stuff,” Amstadter said. “They’re afraid, and I understand. (The Hells Angels) are not pleasant people.”
Hearrean’s son was turned away from the Elk, Wash., day-care center he has attended for six years. Workers there were worried about their safety, too, Hearrean said.
The center’s director did not return two phone calls Thursday.
“I’ve even given a speech at that place to teach the children about gangs,” Hearrean said of the day-care center. “I just can’t believe this.”
But Hearrean said that as difficult as the trial has been for his family, he has no plans to back down.
His wife could not be reached for comment because she was hospitalized after breaking three toes in an accident Thursday.
Hearrean, deputy prosecutor in charge of the gang unit, said there will be only more cases of intimidation and threats ahead.
“We have to stand up to these people collectively and say we won’t tolerate it,” Hearrean said. “If we don’t, they will always win.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo